Articles
10 Easy Ways to Boost Your Immunity (Shape)
Regular, moderate exercise can boost several aspects of your body's self-defense system. "Physical activity not only strengthens your cardiovascular system," Berk says, "it improves your mood and reduces stress." (see tip #8)
Performing Arts and the Brain (Dunbar Lab)
Our early work suggest that performing arts students show more extensive activation in areas of the brain associated with the abstract qualities of a situation, We are now using an extensive battery of screening tests, DNA genotyping, and fMRI to uncover the effects of a performing arts education on the brain.
Newborn infants detect the beat in music (PNAS)
To shed light on how humans can learn to understand music, we need to discover what the perceptual capabilities with which infants are born. Beat induction, the detection of a regular pulse in an auditory signal, is considered a fundamental human trait that, arguably, played a decisive role in the origin of music. Theorists are divided on the issue whether this ability is innate or learned. We show that newborn infants develop expectation for the onset of rhythmic cycles (the downbeat), even when it is not marked by stress or other distinguishing spectral features. Omitting the downbeat elicits brain activity associated with violating sensory expectations. Thus, our results strongly support the view that beat perception is innate.
Court Upholds New York City's Dancing Ban at Bars (NYPost)
The city's 80-year-old cabaret law banning dancing by patrons in ordinary bars and restaurants is legal, the state Supreme Court's Appellate Division ruled Thursday. The Gotham West Coast Swing Club and several people had sued, saying the law violated their constitutional right to free expression. But the appeals court backed the law, which was enacted in the Prohibition era to crack down on speakeasies.
Leisure Activities and the Risk of Dementia in the Elderly (NE Journal of Medicine)
New England Journal of Medicine - Among leisure activities, reading, playing board games, playing musical instruments, and dancing were associated with a reduced risk of dementia.
